simple wishes

Right now, there are really only two things I want in life: to be senior enough that I can put in a chest tube without two people supervising me, and to be senior enough not to be the one holding pressure for 45 minutes after pulling out an intra-aortic balloon pump – for the second time in three days on the same patient!

(Although I have to say, the other day, when the attending paged me to come help in the OR and “just have a nurse hold pressure [on the site of the arterial sheath just removed] – I want you in here!” it was pretty sweet; usually the nurses refuse to do that for residents.)